The Austin Police Department says Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into its cooperation with immigration authorities.
APD defended its newly tweaked policies for how officers work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on certain arrest warrants for undocumented residents, and said Monday night that it would cooperate with the attorney general's investigation.
In a joint statement with APD, the city said its policy is "consistent" with state law.
"It creates mechanisms that allow officers to provide reasonable or necessary assistance to ICE, while taking into consideration other legal constraints and our need to balance limited police resources in real-world situations," a spokesperson for the city said.
KUT reached out the attorney general's office for a comment on the investigation but has not yet heard back.
The police department changed its policy in March to reduce ICE intervention in local policing. The guidelines require officers to clear any call to ICE with a supervisor when a person is suspected of being in the country without authorization and has a non-criminal warrant, known as an administrative warrant.
City guidelines require police to cooperate with ICE if someone who's suspected of being undocumented faces a criminal charge. A state law, known as Senate Bill 4, bans cities from adopting policies that discourage police cooperation with ICE.
Austin City Council Member Chito Vela told KUT that the city's policy is in line with state law.
"My office worked very carefully with the City Attorney's Office and consulted experts on SB4 ... to ensure APD policy fully complies with both state laws and the U.S. Constitution," he said. "I firmly believe any good-faith investigation will confirm that."
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